Vincenzo Angiletta

A gunman who migrated to Australia in 1951, Angiletta was an extortionist and gunman in his native Calbria.

He became a producer of fruit and vegetables for the Melbourne mafia-style organised crime group which has been termed the "Society".

He wanted the society to be like the Sicilian Mafia in the United States and called for extortion rackets to include non- Italians.

This was rejected by Domenico Demarte, who had filled the breach after the death of Godfather Domenico Italiano, and other Society elders.

Angiletta reacted to this snub by refusing to sell his produce to designated wholesalers and going direct to the public.

He was warned but refused to conform. Angiletta was stabbed once on Society orders but still refused to return to the fold. 

He was then kidnapped and covered in excrement at Woodend in a ritualistic punishment call il tartaro.

He vowed revenge and began his own group called La Bastarda- the Bastard Society and recruited 300 members.

Angiletta sold his market garden in Kew to a Greek family rather than a designated Calabrian Family. It is believed that Angiletta then became a marked man. He began carrying a pistol.

Demarte, fellow Society elder Vincenzo Muratore and a third man met and agreed Angiletta had to die.

In the early hours of April 4, 1963, Angiletta, by then employed as a cleaner, was hit twice in the head by shotgun fire as he parked his car in the garage of his Stafford Street, Northcote home at 2.30am.

The shots had been fired from behind.

Forensic tests showed he was killed with lupra shot - the same type of shotgun pellets used by wolf hunters in Calabria.

Friends of Angletta blamed Demarte and Muratore.

Demarte was shot as he left his North Melbourne home at 3.30am on November 26, 1963.

He survived but decided to forgo all of his positions in the Honoured Society.

Muratore was shot dead early in 1964.